LARS'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF RICK RIORDAN'S "THE LOST HERO"

THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS BOOK ONE: THE LOST HERO. By Rick Riordan. Disney/Hyperion, 2010. 553 pages.

Rick Riordan claims that by moving on to The Heroes of Olympus, he has escaped "the easy sort of default thing," like writing "Percy Jackson 6, Percy Jackson 7, Percy Jackson 28." During the same Lost Hero release webcast, he griped that there are "too many series" that go on "way too long," where "the book quality suffers."

That seems a bit disingenuous. Okay, Percy Jackson doesn’t make an appearance in The Lost Hero. But his presence is pervasive—he’s off on a quest—and there are strong hints of a re-appearance in the next book. Other characters from The Olympians show up. Annabeth, especially, is quite important here. Yes, there is a "new generation" of demigods, but they’re still going to Camp Half Blood. Calling The Lost Hero Percy Jackson 6 would not really be too far off the mark.

Not that I’m complaining—much. And there are gonna be a gazillion breathlessly-waiting kids eating this one up. So more power to Mr. Riordan. It will be interesting to see whether this series, or Riordan’s other new franchise, The Kane Chronicles, gains more traction in the middle school market. I’m rooting for the Kane siblings, and thought The Red Pyramid was a far more original concept.

To be fair, there are definitely some new elements in The Lost Hero. Despite the singularity evoked in its titles, the novel features a trio of protagonists, and although the narration is always third-person, Riordan divides his focus equally between them, switching off every couple of chapters.

Percy Jackson, solo; Sadie and Carter Kane, duo; now a triad—Jason, Piper and Leo. They’re most emphatically new creations, and likeable ones. Jason and Piper are immediately portrayed as beautiful people, without Percy Jackson’s initial awkwardness. That’s even with Jason having lost his memory. Continuing to move toward more of a multicultural cast (the Kanes are African-American), Riordan enlists a Latino in Leo. Likewise, Piper is not only half god; she’s half Cherokee.

New god-fathers and god-mothers, too, of course.

The real novelty in The Heroes of Olympus is going to be Rome, and the Roman versions of the Greek gods. In The Lost Hero, Jason, Piper and Leo’s quest is to free Hera/Juno and defeat Porphyion and his brother giants, who might awaken their mum.

There’s another plot line, though. Percy Jackson is operating on some kind of parallel mission that will involve the denizens of Camp Half Blood coming to term with the Roman manifestations of their Olympian progenitors. It’s a mission that connects to Jason’s lack of recall.

Goodbye, Odysseus. Hello, Aeneas and the wolf brothers.

I’ll leave it a mystery as to how that begins to come about, and since I can't as yet know how it will play out, I'll be on the lookout for the next Heroes.

Recommended for fourth graders on up.